When a child experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI), there are many immediate health concerns that must be addressed. From neurological complication to complications involving general growth and development, any child that experiences a blunt trauma to the head should be evaluated by a pediatrician.

If your child experienced a blunt trauma to the head, and has been diagnosed with TBI due to associated residual health complications, it is important to become familiar with a unique complication that involves abnormal psychological complications and irregular mental growth patterns. While you may be inclined to focus on the neurological complications, often because they are most apparent, the under workings of a TBI can also lead to a complication involving psychological growth and development in children.

Interesting enough, not all psychological changes in children with TBI are negative. While we may tend to fear a child will develop anxiety, depression, impaired emotion, impaired cognitive function and even complications, involving personality development, there are many children who actually experience positive outcomes. While many of these positive outcomes may have been expected with normal growth and development, in children with traumatic brain injury they can be exacerbated. The term you may hear from your child's rehabilitation team, and often used among health care professionals, is known as "adversarial growth". Simply put, "adversarial growth" implies a positive change in behavior or lifestyle following an adversarial event. It is the term used to describe the experience of a highly complicated and poor life experience that results in, ultimately, a positive outcome. In children with traumatic brain injury (TBI), adversarial growth is becoming increasingly more recognized.

As your child transitions into a rehabilitation program, there is, undoubtedly, complications that may arise involving negative effects of TBI. However, by the same token, your child may also experience adversarial growth in the process. To quantify and qualify the positive changes in your child's development, ask the rehabilitation team to conduct an assessment known as the Post-traumatic Growth Inventory (PGI). Using the PGI scaling, and the 21 item focus, your child's positive outcomes or positive changes can be highlighted. It is these positive outcomes that you will want to encourage as a parent as these will be the items that will effect your daily life just as much as the negative effects of TBI.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a complex health complication that can lead to many adverse outcomes in your child's growth and development. With not only physical complications a concern, but also psychological complications, your child's overall growth and development will change after a blunt trauma to the head occurs. As a parent and family, rather than focusing on solely the negative outcomes, ask about the PGI scaling assessment and focus on the positive changes in your child's life as these will boost your child's confidence and help in the rehabilitation of the negative outcomes of traumatic brain injury (TBI).